Why I support the ACA.

I think the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (aka "Obamacare") is undoubtedly a good thing for the country, here is why

(not in any particular order)

Prices

By bringing in millions of new customers and using private insurance companies to foster competition, prices have (and will continue to) come down.

 The prices on the exchanges are all lower than projected, and health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in over a decade.

The ACA has a rule that insurance companies have to spend 80% of the money they take in from premiums on actual healthcare (as opposed to advertising or teams of lawyers figuring out how to deny coverage, etc). The insurance industry has already had to refund millions of dollars to people because they violated this rule. What this means is they cannot ‘pass along costs’ to consumers, whether they lose money in the stock market, spend money defending lawsuits, or have to include more services in what they reimburse to doctors and hospitals, they cannot just raise rates, they still have to spend 80% of premium income on actual healthcare.

Coverage

The insurance coverage is being offered by the same private companies who were already offering it, but with restrictions on what they are allowed to do. The ACA requires them to offer ‘full coverage’ even on the cheapest plans. Previously, cheap plans didn’t cover much, had high deductibles and unrealistic yearly caps and lifetime limits. This made the plans not only outrageously expensive, but provided lousy coverage as well.

The insurance companies can no longer cheat people by denying coverage or refusing to pay by using ‘pre-existing conditions’ to cherry-pick only healthy people. This means everyone will be getting needed treatment, and overall we will be healthier as a result.

The ACA uses the same healthcare providers as before, so people who already had insurance aren’t being forced to change Doctors, or Hospitals. (There is a lot of misinformation over this being put out there, so it’s important to research when one hears claims that imply this is the case)

The ACA includes a lot of free screenings and mobile clinics, providing much needed advance warning of potentially dangerous situations. There is also a focus in the ACA to promote  ‘wellness’ instead of ‘treating sickness’ which leads to a healthier populace .

Healthcare Costs

The ACA will do what the real conservatives wanted, take people off the ‘free ride’ at emergency rooms and put them into the system as paying customers.  Of course, many will receive subsidies, so plenty of people will still get a ‘free ride’ of sorts, but it will be at clinics and with paid doctors, not via the most expensive form of healthcare, emergency room.

Because of the individual mandate, millions of people will actually pay for insurance without subsidies, or only partial subsidies. That brings money into the system.

We have to remember that the system was totally 'fup' already, and already costing us a fortune. Because the insurance companies ‘cherry-picked’ who they covered and what they covered, healthcare statistics were skewed and overall healthcare costs were drastically higher. By making the overall system more ‘honest’, healthcare dollars will be spent more efficiently, and overall healthcare costs will come down. Waste and fraud are being removed from the system, inefficiencies are being refined, and the focus is moving towards healthier people, not just taking care of people once they get sick.

And again, because the rules make every policy cover basic health services, overall insurance plans are better, which results in people receiving better treatment.

Summary

The ACA uses private insurance companies, which fosters competition and reduces prices. Quality is held at a high level by rules as to what all policies have to cover, and the ‘80-20’ rule.

Insurance companies are restricted from the most egregious tactics they have been using to deny coverage and refuse payments

Insurance companies previously kept people out of the system and forced them into emergency rooms for both basic healthcare and remedial treatment, which drove up costs drastically.

The ACA provides coverage for millions of people who were uninsured, literally saving lives while making millions of people’s lives better 9n the process.

When we consider the out-of-control rising costs of the previous system, the removal of waste and inefficiency from that system, the removal of unfair practices from the previous system, overall lower cost of healthcare, affordable healthcare for millions of people and the inclusion of millions of people into the healthcare system, it all adds up to a great change to America’s healthcare system and a great thing for the American people.